Factory Farming: Turkeys Factory Farming PoultryA man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.Sutrakritanga (Jainism)

The nightmare before Christmas - at least for the turkeys

In the wild turkeys live for twelve years

"it is only when we get close to animals, and examine them with open minds that we are likely to glimpse the being within. Natural history writing is strewn with incidents which writers are moved to awe by the intelligence, sensitivity and awareness of animals they have lived with. When Joe Hutto, a turkey hunter, lived for a year among a flock of wild turkeys in Florida, he was moved to describe them as his superiors - more alert, sensitive and aware, and vastly more conscious than himself. Hutto concluded that the birds are in love with being alive."

Jonathan Balcombe describing the experiences of Joe Hutto in his book Pleasurable Kingdom

Dear Lord, I've been asked, nay commanded, to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us... a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird... a social being... capable of actual affection... nuzzling its young with almost human-like compassion. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it. Please give our respects to its family.

Berke Breathed.

Turkeys are gentle creatures known for their resourcefulness and agility, Benjamin Franklin called the Turkey "a bird of courage" he thought the Turkey truly deserved to be the national bird of the USA instead of the Bald Engle.

In a recent study here in the UK it was found that turkeys showed a preference for different kinds of music and sounds. It was also found that turkeys play with one another and when an apple was thrown into a group of turkeys they will play with it as a group .

“Very few animals go through the stresses of poults [baby turkeys] in their first three hours of life. They are squeezed for sexing, thrown down a slide onto a treadmill, someone picks them up and pulls the snood off their heads, clips three toes off each foot, debeaks them, puts them on another conveyer belt that delivers them to another carousel where they get a power injection, usually of an antibiotic, that whacks them in the back of their necks. Essentially, they have been through major surgery. They have been traumatized. They don’t look very good. . . .”

Dr. William E. Donaldson, North Carolina State University

A very succinct and accurate description of the atrocities of factory farming as it relates to turkeys and all that takes place within the first three hours of their tormented lives!

Like chickens turkeys are bred to grow faster and bigger than would other wise be the case in the wild, genetic manipulation and antibiotics produces 35 pound birds within a few months. As a consequence many suffer from painful leg problems, their hearts and lungs cannot cope with the strain, the result is heart and lung collapse and crippling deformity and chronic pain. Twenty five per cent of turkeys are in chronic pain because of swollen joints, 70 per cent of big birds. Other breeding and genetic modifying techniques have been further implemented to produce anatomically disproportionate birds with large breasts, which is what the market wants and where the most money is made. There is little space remaining in their body cavity for other organs. Due to the extent of genetic interference turkeys are now so heavy that they can no longer reproduce naturally. Two or three times a week the males are in effect "milked" for their semen by workers who manipulate the males’ anal area until the phallus is erect and semen is ejected, helped along by the pressure on the lower abdomen. The semen is than introduced into the female's vagina by hypodermic syringe or the operator’s breath pressure, through a length of tubing while the bird is held upside down. The repeated use of this practice is stressful and if not performed correctly may lead to injury. In addition artificial insemination spreads fowl cholera, a major disease which results from the factory farming of turkeys. Rather reminds one of plant propagation techniques in a green house rather than a procedure carried out on feeling sentient beings. The turkey you see in your supermarket only now exists because of artificial insemination.

A female turkey is little more than a meat or egg laying machine. Mother turkeys like their chicken counterparts never see their off spring. In their natural circumstances turkey mothers, like ducks, communicate with their chicks both while still in the egg and following their birth. In factory farms when eggs are laid, fertile eggs are immediately taken from the mother and sent to the hatchery. After twenty eight days in the hatchery the chicks are transferred to what are called growing sheds where the heat is kept at a high temperature and the lighting dim. Many chicks die of heart attacks and heat stroke, they suffer stress and aggression from their fellow equally traumatised chicks. Many die of thirst and starvation unable to locate water and feeding points.

Also like chickens turkeys are crammed together, as many as 25,000 in each dimly lit windowless shed. The lighting is dim to discourage aggression due to the stress and frustration of their dreadful and unnatural conditions, which results in fighting as birds attack each other's eyes and toes. Many peck at each other, pull out feathers and in some intensive factory farms cannibalism takes place. Low lighting causes reduced activity levels and results in abnormal growth. Turkeys are by nature gentle creatures, in the wild this kind of aggression does not take place.

Turkeys are crammed together in such close confinement that as they grow they run out of space and barely have room to move, they stand in their own excrement. The litter is not changed until these birds go to slaughter.Photograph courtesy of Farm Animal sanctuary. Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY 2

Like broiler chickens turkeys are kept on a litter floor. However unlike chickens turkeys do not scratch round in the litter and as a consequence the litter deteriorates even more quickly than that of chickens. Make no mistake in thinking that these litter floors are cleaned out; like chicken sheds, turkey sheds are only cleaned out after the birds are taken to be slaughtered. After the duration of the growing period as much as 80 percent of this is faeces, the consequence of this increases their suffering as turkeys develop ulcerated feet and painful burns to their breasts and legs as a result of the build up of ammonia as turkeys spend their short lives standing on litter which becomes increasingly wet and dirty. The maximum space for each bird is no more than 260cm2/kg, 3.5 square feet, this space becomes increasingly more tightly packed as the turkey grows rapidly.

This joyless life filled with misery is a far cry from how turkeys live in their natural habitat. In the wild turkeys can fly at speeds of up to 55 miles per hour and run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. In their natural habitat in their native land of America turkeys roost in trees, eating vegetation and insects, roaming through the woodland. Mothers are protective of their young living in harems.

Imagine the frustration, anxiety and depression which results from such confinement. To further add to this suffering many birds may be found with open wounds and sores, dead or dying, suffering disease and neglect. Their suffering is ignored, untreated, no one checks to see if any birds cannot reach food or water, no one tends their wounds they are merely a means to an end, and that end is not to put food on your table as cheaply as possible, food which you really do not need, but rather to provide a significant profit for the meat industry.

When turkeys are but a few days old factory farm workers cut off portions of their upper beaks and toes with hot blades and also remove with an instrument, or simply pull off, the males flap of skin which runs from the beak to the chest, this procedure called desnooding is undertaken to minimalise cannibalism. All of these procedures/ mutilations are carried out without the use of anaesthetics or pain killers. Furthermore debeaking my result in chronic pain. It is also done more than once. This cruel practice is meant to prevent birds from scratching and pecking each other to death, which as already mentioned it is a behaviour not seen in the wild; such abnormal behaviours occur no doubt as a result of the stress and misery of their painful lives. Debeaking is of course not the solution, the cessation of factory farming is the only remedy, indeed any kind of farming and the reintroduction of turkeys into the wild.

Make no mistake in thinking that turkeys and other poultry are not aware of their circumstances, see sentient animals, and as a consequence do not experience in addition to dreadful pain, stress, anxiety and fear. This is one of the erroneous beliefs that the meat industry is quite happy to have you continue to believe. The reality is that indeed like humans turkeys and other poultry experience fear and stress. Stress results in a condition called "starve-out" the name of the condition that causes young birds to stop eating. The cessation of eating and drinking is a sign of stress that manifests in all animals including man. "Starve-out" may also occur as a consequence of many birds being unable to reach food and water supplies, not able to fight their way through the throng of stronger birds in the cramped conditions. Birds have also been observed to show not only signs of chronic pain after debeaking, but also depression.

In addition to the above if such cruelty was not bad enough turkeys may suffer deliberate abuse. Prosecution takes place in such cases but remember that this occurs only when the culprits are caught and that often only happens after an animal rights group has undertaken an investigation. Such as the abuse discovered by Hillside Animal Sanctuary when workers at Bernhard Matthews intensive factory farm where filmed using turkeys as footballs. There are no doubt many similar cases of abuse which never get reported. Such incidences occur the world over as in the case of appalling cruelty reported by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), where turkeys where beaten, kicked and stomped to death. Faeces and even broom handles pushed down their throats are amongst some of the horrendous abuses reported, which of course all takes place in the full view of other turkeys inducing unimaginable terror.

"A PETA investigation of Minnesota-based Crestview Farm revealed that the manager of the farm repeatedly used a metal pipe to bludgeon 12-week-old turkeys who were lame, injured, ill, or otherwise unsuitable for slaughter and consumption. The injured birds were thrown onto piles of other dead and dying birds then tossed into a wheelbarrow for disposal. Birds who were overlooked were kicked or beaten with pliers or had their necks wrung—all in full view of other terrified birds. When the Minnesota Turkey Growers came to the defense of the farmer, the local district attorney refused to prosecute."

And when finally their short miserable lives are ended as they are sent to the abattoir (between three and six months old, hen turkeys are slaughtered between nine and 11 weeks of age), their suffering is far from over. In preparation for the abattoir turkeys sufferer much abuse and often workers who catch the birds for transportation handle them so violently that they routinely break their bones, and many suffer painful and distressful haemorrhaging before their arrival at the Slaughter house, after a horrifying journey sometimes of considerable distance crammed in lorries in conditions of severe stress in extremes of temperature, some suffocate or become injured before arriving at their destination .

Turkeys are crammed into crates, often taken considerable distance to the abattoir, exposed to all weathers. As many as 10,000 birds may be packed in the way you see above.Photograph courtesy of Farm Animal sanctuary.Farm Sanctuary | Watkins Glen, NY 2

If they have not already died of injury or shock from such treatment. More abuse awaits them at the abattoir

Legislation in the UK allows turkeys to be shackled by their legs for up to six minutes before they are killed, a procedure that results in obvious suffering. Turkeys and other poultry are rendered unconscious by having their heads immersed in an electrified water bath, a cruelty which in itself does not bear thinking about. Anyone who has had even the mildest of electric shocks will know only to well how painful contact with an electrical current can be. However to increase this horrendous suffering still further turkeys often suffer the additional trauma of pre stun electric shocks because their wings often make contact with the water before their heads. How can anyone consider this a humane way of rendering an animal unconscious.

However this system of stunning is not infallible, many remain conscious or regain consciousness. A back up system meant to decapitate any birds that are not stunned, another awful way to die of course, often misses some birds due to the large volume of birds each hour. These birds continue on to the neck cutter which severs one carotid artery, it takes about five minutes for the bird to loose brain responsiveness. As a consequence many birds enter the scolding tank, a device for defeathering, fully conscious. Million of birds will be conscious when they enter the scolding tank.

The Shocking facts is that in the USA 270 million turkeys are killed each year 72 million of whom are slaughtered at holiday times including Christmas. In the UK 15 million are slaughtered annually with 10 million at Christmas time. I have been unable to find out the number of birds killed annually world wide to provide you with your Christmas dinner, the figure must be unimaginably high. What an incongruous and truly hideous way to celebrate the birth of religious figure whom any believe to be a man of peace.

If more people witnessed the cruelty of slaughter, we believe they would choose a compassionate alternative and celebrate a vegetarian Thanksgiving instead.Quotation: Farm sanctuary

To see a photographic account of the atrocities committed towards turkeys visit the website below

As before the most effective way to stop this cruelty is to stop eating turkey. Yes indeed you can have a very festive Christmas without recourse to eating the flesh of this sensitive intelligent creature. Many of the websites linked below will have information about alternatives for Christmas and Thanksgiving. For ideas from this website see:So you want to become veggie /vegan? Where you can also read what my family and I have to eat as an alternative to turkey or other meat at Christmas time.

There are some very tasty recipes on VIVA's website which you may use as an alternative to turkey for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Viva! Very Veggie Christmas